Dio's Rome Volume IV Part 14

[Footnote 5: The version of Zonaras says: "whom some record as Julia, others as Livia." Inscriptions give her name as either _Claudia Livia_ or _Livilla_. From these two pieces of evidence Boissevain with customary ac.u.men concludes that Dio's original words were probably: "whom some name Livilla, and others Livia."]

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

58

Tiberius withdraws to Capreae: Sabinus loses his life through the treachery of Latiarius (chapter 1).

About the death of Livia (chapter 2).

Gallus is condemned to consume away by a slow death (chapter 3).

Seja.n.u.s, puffed up by excessive honors, is put to death together with his household and friends by the artifice of Tiberius (chapters 4-19).

The method of selecting magistrates and of holding comitia (chapter 20).

The l.u.s.tfulness of Tiberius, his cruelty towards his own family and others, and likewise his greed (chapters 21-25).

About Artaba.n.u.s, the Parthian King, and about Armenia (chapter 26).

About the death of Thrasyllus (chapter 27).

About the death of Tiberius (chapter 28).

DURATION OF TIME.

Cn. Lentulus Gaetulicus, C. Calvisius Sabinus. (A.D. 26 = a. u. 779 = Thirteenth of Tiberius, from Aug. 19th.)

M. Licinius Cra.s.sus, L. Calpurnius Piso. (A.D. 27 = a. u. 780 = Fourteenth of Tiberius.)

App. Iunius Sila.n.u.s, P. Silius Nerva. (A.D. 28 = a. u. 781 = Fifteenth of Tiberius.)

L. Rubellius Geminus, C. Fufius Geminus. (A.D. 29 = a. u. 782 = Sixteenth of Tiberius.)

M. Vinicius Quartinus, L. Ca.s.sius Longinus. (A.D. 30 = a. u. 783 = Seventeenth of Tiberius.)

Tiberius Aug. (V), L. aelius Seia.n.u.s. (A.D. 31 = a. u. 784 = Eighteenth of Tiberius.)

Cn. Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, Furius Camillus Scribonia.n.u.s. (A.D. 32 = a. u.

785 = Nineteenth of Tiberius.)

Serv. Sulpicius Galba, L. Cornelius Sulla, (A.D. 33 = a. u. 786 = Twentieth of Tiberius.)

L. Vitellius, Paulus Fabius Persicus. (A.D. 34 = a. u. 787 = Twenty-first of Tiberius.)

C. Cestius Gallus, M. Servilius Nonia.n.u.s. (A.D. 35 = a. u. 788 = Twenty-second of Tiberius.)

s.e.x. Papinius, Q. Plautius. (A.D. 36 = a. u. 789 = Twenty-third of Tiberius.)

Cn. Acerronius Proculus, C. Pontius Nigrinus. (A.D. 37 = a. u. 790 = Twenty-fourth of Tiberius, to March 26th.)

_(BOOK 57, BOISSEVAIN.)_

[A.D. 26 (_a. u._ 779)]

[-1-] He went away about this time from Rome and never returned to the city at all, though he was ever on the point of doing so and kept sending messages to that effect.

[A.D. 27 (_a. u._ 780)]

Much calamity could be laid by the Romans at his door, since he wasted the lives of men alike for public service and for private whim, as when he decided to expel the hunting spectacles from the city. Consequently some persons attempted to carry them on in the country outside and perished in the ruins of their theatres, which had been loosely constructed of rude planks.

[A.D. 28 (_a. u._ 781)]

It was now, too, that a certain Latiarius, a companion of Sabinus (one of the most prominent men at Rome) and also in favor with Seja.n.u.s, concealed senators in the ceiling of the apartment where his friend lived and led Sabinus into conversation. By throwing out some of his usual remarks he induced the other also to speak out freely all that he had in his mind.

It is the practice of such as wish to play the sycophant to take the lead in some kind of abuse and to disclose some secret, intending that their victim either for listening to them or for saying something similar may find himself liable to indictment. To the sycophants, since they do it with a purpose, freedom of speech involves no danger. They are regarded as speaking so not because their words express their real sentiments but because they wish to convict others. Their victims, however, are punished for the smallest syllable out of the ordinary that they may utter. This also happened in the present case. Sabinus was put in prison that very day and subsequently perished without trial. His body was flung down the Scalae Gemoniae and cast into the river. The affair was made more tragic by the behavior of a dog of Sabinus that went with him to his cell, was by him at his death, and at the end was thrown into the river with him.--Such was the nature of this event.

[Sidenote: A.D. 29 (_a. u._ 782)]

[-2-] During this same period Livia also pa.s.sed away at the age of eighty-six. Tiberius paid her no visits while she was ill and did not personally attend to her laying out. In fact, he made no arrangements at all in her honor save the public funeral and images and some other small matters of no importance. As for her being deified, he forbade that absolutely. The senate, however, did not content itself with voting merely the measures which he had ordained, but enjoined upon the women mourning for her during the entire year, although it approved the course of Tiberius in not abandoning even at this time the conduct of public business. Furthermore they voted her an arch (as had never been done in the case of any other woman), because she had preserved not a few of them, had reared many children belonging to citizens, and had helped find husbands for numerous girls,--for all of which acts some called her Mother of her Country. She was buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.

Tiberius would not pay a single one of her bequests to anybody.

Among the many excellent utterances of hers that are related is one concerned with the occasion when some men that were naked met her and on that account fell under sentence of execution; she saved their lives by saying that to chaste women such persons were no whit different from statues. When some one asked her how and by what course of action she had obtained such an influence over Augustus, she answered that it was by being scrupulously chaste herself, doing willingly whatever pleased him, not meddling with any of his business, and particularly by pretending neither to hear of nor notice the favorites that were the objects of his pa.s.sion. Such was the character of Livia. The arch voted to her, however, was not built for the reason that Tiberius promised to construct it at his own expense. For, as he disliked to annul the decree by direct command, he made it void in this way, by not allowing the work to be undertaken out of the public funds nor attending to it himself.

[A.D. 29 or 30]

Seja.n.u.s was rising to still greater heights. It was voted that his birthday should be publicly observed, and the ma.s.s of statues which the senate and the equestrian order, the tribes and the foremost citizens set up, would have pa.s.sed any one's power to count. Separate envoys were sent to both these "rulers" by the senate as well as the knights and also by the people, who selected them from their own tribunes and aediles. For both of them alike they offered prayers and sacrifices and they took oaths by their Fortunes.

[A.D. 30 (a. u. 783)]

[-3-] Gallus, who married the wife of Tiberius and spoke his mind regarding the empire, was the next object of the emperor's attack, for which the right moment had been carefully selected. [Whether he really believed that Seja.n.u.s would be emperor or whether it was out of fear of Tiberius, he paid court to the former. It may indeed, have been a kind of plot, to make the minister irksome to Tiberius and so accomplish his ruin: but at any rate Gallus transacted the greater and more important part of his business with him and made efforts to be one of the envoys.

Therefore the emperor sent a report about him to the senate, making among other statements one to the effect that this man was jealous of his friendship for Seja.n.u.s, although Gallus himself treated Syriacus as an intimate friend. He did not make this known to Gallus, entertaining him most hospitably instead.] Hence something most unusual befell him that never happened to any one else. On the very same day he was banqueted at the house of Tiberius, pledging him in the cup of friendship, and was condemned before the senate. Indeed, a praetor was sent to imprison him and lead him away for punishment. Yet Tiberius, though he had acted so, did not permit his victim to die, in spite of the latter's wish for death as soon as he learned the decree. Instead, he bade Gallus (in order to make his lot still more dismal) to be of good cheer and instructed the senate[1] that he should be guarded without bonds until the emperor should reach the City; his object, as I said, was to make the prisoner suffer for the longest possible time both from deprivation of his civic rights and from terror. So it turned out. He was kept under the eyes of the consuls of each year except when Tiberius held the office, in that case he was guarded by the praetors, not to prevent his escape, but to prevent his death. He had no companion or servant as a.s.sociate, spoke to no one, saw no one, except when he was compelled to take food. And what he got was of such a quality and amount as neither to afford him any pleasure or strength nor yet to allow him to die. This was the worst feature of it. Tiberius did the same thing in the case of many others.

For instance, he had imprisoned one of his companions, and when there was later talk about executing him, he said: "I have not yet made my peace with him." Some one else, again, he had tortured very severely, and then on ascertaining that the victim had been unjustly accused he had him killed with all speed, remarking that he had been too terribly outraged to find any satisfaction in living. Syriacus, who had neither committed nor been charged with any wrong, but was renowned for his education, was slain merely for the reason that Tiberius said he was a friend of Gallus.

[Seja.n.u.s brought false accusation also against Drusus, through the medium of his wife. For, by maintaining illicit relations with practically all the wives of the distinguished men, he learned what their husbands said and did, and further made them his a.s.sistants by promises of marriage.

Now when Tiberius without discussion sent Drusus to Rome, Seja.n.u.s, fearing that his position might be injured, persuaded Ca.s.sius [2] to busy himself against him.]

After exalting Seja.n.u.s to a high pinnacle of glory and making him a member of his family by the alliance with Julia, daughter of Drusus, Tiberius later killed him.

[-4-] Now Seja.n.u.s was growing greater and more formidable all the time, and his progress made the senators and the rest look up to him as if he were actually emperor and esteem Tiberius lightly. When Tiberius learned this, he did not regard the matter as a trivial one, fearing, indeed, that they would hail his rival as emperor outright, and he did not neglect it. Yet he did nothing openly, for Seja.n.u.s had won the entire pretorian guard thoroughly to his own side and had gained the favor of the senators partly by benefits, partly by implanting hopes, and partly by intimidation. He had made all the attendants on Tiberius so entirely his friends that absolutely everything the emperor did was at once reported to him, whereas of what he did not a word reached Tiberius's ears. Hence the latter appeared content to follow where Seja.n.u.s led, appointed him consul, and termed him Sharer of his Cares, repeating often the phrase "My Seja.n.u.s," and publishing the same by writing it to the senate and the people. Men took this behavior as sincere and were deceived, and so set up bronze statues all about to both alike, wrote their names together in bulletins, and brought into the theatres gilded chairs for both. Finally it was voted that they should together be made consuls every four years and that a body of citizens should go out to meet both alike whenever they entered Rome. In the end they sacrificed to the images of Seja.n.u.s as to those of Tiberius. This was the way matters stood with Seja.n.u.s. Now among the rest many famous men met an ill fate, of whom was also Gaius Fufius Geminus. Being accused of the crime of maiestas against Tiberius he took his will into the senate-chamber and read it, showing that he had left his inheritance in equal portions to his children and to his sovereign. As he was charged with weakness he went home before any vote was reached. When he learned that the quaestor had arrived to attend to his execution, he wounded himself and displaying the wound to the official exclaimed: "Report to the senate that it is thus one dies who is a man." Likewise, his wife, Mutilia Prisca, against whom some complaint was made, made her way into the senate and there stabbed herself with a dagger, which she had brought in secretly.

Next he destroyed Mutilia and her husband together with two daughters on account of her friendship for his mother.

In the days of Tiberius all who accused any persons regularly received money and large allotments both from the victims' property and from the public treasury in addition to various honors. There were cases where certain men who impudently threw others into a panic or recklessly pa.s.sed the death sentence upon them obtained in the one instance statues and in the other triumphal honors. Hence several citizens who were really ill.u.s.trious and conquered the right to some such distinction would not a.s.sume it out of reluctance to let any period of their lives betray even a superficial similarity to the careers of those scoundrels.

Tiberius, feigning sickness, sent Seja.n.u.s on to Rome with the a.s.surance that he should follow. He declared that in this separation a part of his own body and soul was wrenched away from him: shedding tears he embraced and kissed him, and Seja.n.u.s naturally was thereat the more elated.

[A.D. 31 (a u. 784)]